s as though speaking to himself.

The girl forgot her annoyance in her instinct to come to the defence of
her black mentor.

"Oh, but she has been like a mother to us! After mamma died I don't know
what we should have done--two girls left alone in this old house--if it
hadn't been for Aunt Sharley. She petted us, she protected us, she
nursed us when we were sick. Why, Harvey, she couldn't have been more
loyal or more devoted or more self-sacrificing than she has been through
all these years while we were growing up. I know she loves us with every
drop of blood in her veins. I know she'd work her fingers to the bone
for us--that she'd die in her tracks fighting for us. We try to remember
the debt of gratitude we owe her now that she's getting old and fussy
and unreasonable and all crippled with rheumatism."

She paused, and then, womanlike, she added a qualifying clause: "But I
must admit she's terribly aggravating at times. It's almost unbearable
to have her playing the noisy old tyrant day in and day out. I get
awfully out of patience with her."

Over on Franklin Street the town clock struck.

"Six o'clock," said Harvey. Reluctantly he stirred and sat up in the
hammock and reached for his hat.

"I could be induced, you know, if sufficiently pressed, to stay on for
supper," he hinted. For one Northern born, young Mr. Harvey Winslow was
fast learning the hospitable customs of the town of his recent adoption.

"I'd love to have you stay," stated Emmy Lou, "but--but"--she glanced
over her shoulder toward the open door--"but I'm afraid of Auntie. She
might say she wasn't prepared to entertain a visitor--'not fixed fur
company' is the way she would put it. You see, she regards you as a
person of great importance. That's why she's putting on so many airs
now. If it was one of the home boys that I've known always that was here
with me she wouldn't mind it a bit. But with you it's different, and
she's on her dignity--riding her high horse. You aren't very much
disappointed, are you? Besides, you're coming to supper to-morrow night.
She'll fuss over you then, I know, and be on tiptoe to see that
everything is just exactly right. I think Auntie likes you."

"Curious way she has of showing it then," said Harvey. "I guess I still
have a good deal to learn about the quaint and interesting tribal
customs of this country. Even so, my education is progressing by leaps
and bounds--I can see that."

After further remarks delive